RESULTS: Pump Track World Championships

Europe's largest outdoor park, Area 47 in the Oetztal valley in Austria, was the venue for the 4th UCI Pump track World Championship this weekend. In this young sport, participants from 21 countries completed a compact asphalt circuit full of waves and steep curves on BMX or mountain bikes. At speeds of up to 35 km/h, loads of up to 10G are reached for fractions of a second in the tight curves and falls are therefore often severe. After a crash, Swede Love Sylwan ended up in the hospital.

On the 134 meter long sprint track, the fight for titles and medals became a battle of hundredths of a second. In the knockout final for victory, the American Alec Bob was 0.013 seconds ahead of Mattia Costerman from Italy, while Eddy Clerté from France defeated the Swiss Tristan Borel in the fight for bronze. The former world champions Tommy Zula (USA) and Niels Bensink (NED) got eliminated in the round of 16.

The Swiss Christa von Niederhaeusern was in a class of her own among the women and won her third rainbow jersey ahead of Sabina Korsarkova from the Czech Republic and Alina Beck from Germany.